I have had bipolar disorder since I was 20 years old. I’m 25 years old. My attitude has changed completely since the onset of the disorder. I am less positive. I’m pessimistic and I read self-help material but it isn’t effective. I have a hard time recalling information I read. My family tell me to work but I can’t. I have cognitive and executive functioning deficits. I’m thinking I might end up homeless soon. I do take medication, but it hurts when my family (the ones who support me financially) feel that medication heals everything. I’m in a bind. I’m in the process of getting disability and my family have a problem with this. I feel like leaving my family but I don’t know where to go. Once again, I’m in a bind. And finally, I have sleeping spells in which I sleep for ten to twelve hours at a time. I don’t know what to do. I go through the process of seeing a doctor, exercising, eating the best I can, taking medication and staying positive. I have many more issues but I’m not going to make this any longer. I want to return to the way I was before bipolar disorder came.

i am 13 yrs old and i have been having problams i took 6 test and came out postive on all of them. my parents would flip i dont know what to tell them please help!

It is important for people to function daily in the society in order to work, and whatever their daily activities are. In order to function properly, your health should also be in good condition especially your brain. You have to consider that your brain is what controls most part of your body and as well as your decision and other psychological factors. Emotions and your mood is also controlled by a certain part of the brain.

However, what if you have or someone you know has brain disorder? With a brain disorder, you have to consider that it can definitely affect your daily task. Even controlling your emotions and your mood can be difficult. One kind of disorder of the brain is called bipolar disorder. This kind of disorder can affect ones ability to function properly in their daily lives. It can affect several aspects, such as the emotion, mood, and also your body’s energy.

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Currently, there is no laboratory or medical test that would give a straightforward conclusion that a person is suffering from bipolar disorder. This makes it difficult to determine if the symptoms (associated with bipolar disorder) that are present to him or her are indeed signs of this mental illness. Meanwhile, it is very important to detect whether or not this person really has bipolar disorder to provide the right treatment.

Furthermore, the symptoms that could be clear indications of bipolar disorder can be related to other identifiable physical or psychological illness. This makes it more difficult to give treatment since the focus is to give relief to the existing physical pain; rather than identifying if the patient is suffering from any psychological problem. And to complicate these things even further, a person who shows physical signs of bipolar disorder goes to medical doctors rather than a psychiatrist.

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I think i may have bipolar 2, the less severe one. Doctors seem hesitant to give people an official diagnosis. Feeling a little paranoid, wondering if having that on my record could cause me problems. I did notice that the disability plan at work has an exclusion for bipolar dementia. Wondering if that means they exclude bipolar in general. Not that i’m planning to go on disability, just intermittent fmla. Should i stick with my current diagnosis of GAD and Depression?
how do i go about getting meds for the mood swings without diagnosis though. right now i am only on lexapro and xanax. i would like to try something like seroquel. thanks everybody for your input.

As the numbers of people being diagnosed with bipolar disorder grows there are more and more people starting to worry that they or someone who is well known to them has the illness. However the problems start when these people do not actually know what bipolar disorder symptoms are and start to self diagnose. If you want to know which are the bipolar disorder symptoms that you should not ignore take a look at the list below:
• Manic or high episodes – these occur every few weeks or days in severe cases and these types of bipolar disorder symptoms are quite easy to spot. During a high a bipolar sufferer may be hyperactive, they might find they only need a couple of hours sleep each night and they feel as though they can take on any challenge.
• Risk taking may increase – during highs another one of the more dangerous bipolar disorder symptoms presents itself and the sufferer may take risks that they would not usually do. This could mean taking physical risks or consuming alcohol, stimulant drugs or both.
• Spending sprees – this might sound like a strange symptom but this is one of the most common bipolar disorder symptoms which many sufferers exhibit. These spending sprees are part of the risk taking behaviour and can sometimes seem totally out of character.
• Depressive episodes – during these times a person who is bipolar may completely withdraw into themselves and shun the outside world. They may have feelings anger, guilt or apathy and lack motivation. These bipolar disorders symptoms can cause disturbances in a person’s life as some will find it impossible to go to work or maintain relationships.
• Weight gain – this can be another of the bipolar disorder symptoms as a person’s appetite may change significantly. In the same way a person may lose a significant amount of weight when they are having a depressed episode and they lose their appetite.
• Another one of the bipolar disorder symptoms is known as ‘rapid cycling’ and this is the name given to when a person’s highs and lows go through fast cycles. For example a person may be on a manic high for 4-5 days then suddenly experience a severe low for the same period, next they might appear to be quite normal. Then the cycle begins again – this one of the more alarming bipolar disorder symptoms and one that is very common when a person’s moods are not being controlled and stabilised with the correct medication.
As you can see there are a large number of bipolar disorder symptoms and this list is by no means exhaustive. Some people who suffer from bipolar disorder may find that they exhibit all of these symptoms whilst others may only exhibit a few of them. However for a doctor to make a diagnosis of bipolar disorder the bipolar disorder symptoms must occur in regular cycles and not just be the result of a one time emotional upset in a person’s life.

Do you trust those test or would you just blow them off, sometimes I tell myself am I depressed or am I just putting that inside my head. Is being bipolar a disease of the mind or is it an illness? Having 3 boys doesn’t help the matter none, no I love my boys, they are my world. They are not the reason that the test said I was bipolar.